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Rolling Stones Show Last Night In Vegas
Rolling Stones Show Last Night In Vegas
Rolling Stones Show Report:
Mick Jagger will turn 70 in July. He sang, danced, ran, jumped and performed for 3 straight hours in Las Vegas on Sat. May 11, 2013.
I've seen the Stones on every tour since 1978...and each time I see them they sound a little better. This year was no different.
72 year old drummer Charlie Watts has never sounded better or more powerful. As I said earlier, Mick Jagger was a force of nature...and I've never heard him sing live as well as he did last night. Many times in the past he would be up there howling and yelping and sounding like shit.
Last night he SANG his ass off.
And Keith Richards was freakin' phenomenal. At every tour I've seen the Stones play, it seemed like Ron Wood always played most of the leads.
Not last night. "Keef" played what seemed like 80% of the leads. And he was using all of his famous tunings and with the capo and everything (watching how to REALLY play Jumping Jack Flash with open tuning and a capo on the 4th fret was amazing....completely different sound than the "cheat" way that all of us guitarists have played that song in standard tuning)
And his guitar tone was the best I've ever heard at any concert...period. When he played "Tumbling Dice" the combination of his telecaster, open tuning, amp tone and his HANDS was probably the closest to guitar tone heaven I've ever heard. Plenty of warm distortion with absolutely NO hint of "fizziness" in the tone. I was drooling.
It was LOUD and had the most warm "woody" tone I've ever heard (even more so than Joe Walsh's tone when I saw the Eagles a month or so back).
His playing was superb. When he ran (yes a 70 year old Keith Richards was running and jumping around onstage) to the front of the stage and played the opening rhythm guitar part to "All Down The Line" it was just nothing short of jaw dropping. Just NO way to get that in standard tuning.
Speaking of alt tunings...When Keith sang "Before They Make Me Run", he and Ron Wood played that strange lead break note for note together. I never knew how they did it on the record, but I saw it last night.
Ron was in open "E" tuning and Keith was in open "G" and they each played these little triads together in a bizarre harmony guitar part that sounded like one huge guitar.
Just pure genius.
Mick Taylor came out and played on "Midnight Rambler". His excellent guitar work alongside Mick's harmonica playing really, really lit that song up. And Mick Jagger turned on the turbo chargers for "Rambler"...he kicked up the energy onstage so high that I was getting exhausted just watching him.
That song still evokes almost pure "evil" and watching Mick Jagger stalk the stage singing: "I'm called the hit and run raper in anger" sent chills up my spine.
Katy Perry made an appearance and dueted with Jagger on "Beast Of Burden" She's really thickened up and is sporting a nice big ass on her these days. She looked hot and surprisingly did a good job.
The Stones encored by bringing out a local high school choir and performing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" note for note off the album.
Then it was "Jumping Jack Flash"
And finally they brought Mick Taylor back out and ended the show with "Satisfaction".
And in a very nice touch...they had Mick Taylor take the final "band bow" which is only reserved for the actual members of The Rolling Stones (Taylor was a member from 1969 to 1974)
This was a great show. And as I look around the musical landscape I don't see any act out there that can touch what The Rolling Stones did last night. They don't need a bunch of choreographed dancers and lip synching...all they needed was their own talent, their own GREAT songs, and Mick Jagger with more energy than a 20 year old.
As I said, I've seen them on every tour since 1978...they get better every time.
Who knows...maybe next tour these lads will finally get it perfected. lol
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